Utada Hikaru, who is also known as Hikaru Utada and the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer. Born in the United States to Japanese parents, record producer Utada Teruzane and enka singer Keiko Fuji, Utada began to write music and lyrics at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo as a result of her father's job. Eventually, a recording contract with Toshiba-EMI was signed and, under the stage name Cubic U, Utada released her English-language debut album Precious in early 1998, but it was a commercial failure. In the following year, heavily influenced by R&B and dance-pop, her Japanese-language debut First Love was released and became an instant success. Backed by the massive success of singles "Automatic", "Time Will Tell", and "Movin' On Without You", the album sold two million copies in its first week in Japan, topped the Oricon charts for six non-consecutive weeks and went on to sell six million more throughout the rest of 1999. First Love eventually became the country's best-selling album of all time.
Mika Nakashima is a Japanese singer and actress. Five of her studio albums, one of her mini-albums and one of her compilation albums have reached number one in Japan's Oricon album chart. She also embarked on an acting career, most notably as Nana Osaki in the live action film adaptations of Nana. She sold 10 million records in Japan.
Kumiko Kōda, known professionally as Koda Kumi, is a Japanese singer from Kyoto, known for her urban and R&B songs.
Seiko Matsuda is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter, known for being one of the most popular Japanese idols of the 1980s. Due to her popularity in the 1980s and her long career, she has been dubbed the "Eternal Idol" by the Japanese media. In 2016, however, Ian Martin of The Japan Times compared her output unfavorably with that of Utada Hikaru, describing Matsuda as "first and foremost an idol rather than an artist. Her legacy is best expressed in singles rather than albums." Seiko once held the record for number-one hits from 1983 to 2000 and for solo artist. Seiko was the overall finale performer of Kouhaku in 2014 and 2015, the prestigious NHK New Year's Eve Music show on which she has performed 21 times. She is still actively releasing new singles and albums, doing annual summer concert tours, winter dinner shows, high-profile TV commercials and movies, and makes frequent TV appearances and radio broadcasts.
Yui, stylized as YUI or yui, is a Japanese singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress. Born and raised in Fukuoka prefecture, she played live at various locations in her hometown before being noticed by Sony Music Japan when she was 17 years old, and released her debut single months later. Her singles, however, were only met with moderate success until the breakout "Good-bye Days", which charted for 44 weeks on Oricon and marked her as one of the Japanese music industry's rising stars.
Yuna Ito is an American-born former singer and actress who was active in Japan.
Ayaka Iida, known simply as Ayaka, is a female Japanese singer, songwriter and record producer formerly signed to Warner Music Japan. Born in Osaka, she moved to Tokyo to pursue a singing career. She married actor Hiro Mizushima on February 22, 2009.
"Endless Story" is the first single by Yuna Ito, released under the name Reira starring Yuna Ito. "Endless Story" was used in the movie Nana in which Yuna played the character Reira Serizawa. "Endless Story" peaked at #2 on both the daily and weekly charts its first week, and reached #1 on the daily charts on multiple occasions, but was unable to reach #1 on the weekly charts. At the end of 2005, "Endless Story" was named the "Best Love Song of 2005" by the Oricon magazine. It holds the record for the most downloaded debut song for a female artist. On 24 January 2007, according to an Oricon blog, "'Endless Story' was still charting, and at no.144 for that week, and now 471,099 copies are sold". This song has a sample from Faith Hill's "If I'm Not In Love", which is clear on both songs verses, and similarities to "Endless Story"'s English parts.
"Precious" is the third single by Yuna Ito. It is the theme song to the movie Limit of Love: Umizaru and was released on May 3, 2006. Both "I'm Free" and "Secrets" are more up-beat songs than "Precious".
"Stuck on You" is Yuna Ito's fourth single since her debut. This is her first single since her largely successful May 2006 single "Precious" and her first single in which the main track is not a ballad.
"Glamorous Sky" is Mika Nakashima's 16th single overall, her 1st under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima, and the second most successful single in her career after "Stars". It is her first rock song and it was used as one of the image songs for the film Nana. Hyde of L'Arc-en-Ciel composed "Glamorous Sky". The second and third B-sides, "Blood" and "Isolation" were used as CM songs for Kate cosmetics. Mika Nakashima graces the cover of the single as Nana Osaki. The song is featured as a cover by a jrock band, Girugamesh, in the Konami music games, BEMANI for Drummania V3 and Guitarfreaks V3, as well as the iNiS rhythm game Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2.
"Truth" is Yuna Ito's 6th single and last of 2006. This is her second single to be a part of the Nana franchise, the first being "Endless Story".
Lee Ayumi, known professionally as Ayumi and also known as Yumi Itō in Japan, is a South Korean singer, actress and entertainer based in Japan and South Korea. Ayumi debuted in 2001 as the lead vocal of South Korean girl group Sugar and continued until the groups disbanded in 2006. Following the disbanded, Ayumi remained her solo career with only releases three digital singles. In 2008, she moved to Japan and began her acting career with her Japanese name Yumi Itō. In 2009, she debuted as soloists in Japan with stage name Iconiq and since then, she has released one studio album, one EP and seven digital singles.
A Best 2 is a series of greatest hits albums by Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki, which were released simultaneously on 28 February 2007 by Avex Trax. The two-volume release is a direct successor to A Best (2001) and features material from a four-year period of her career. A Best 2 is split between contrasting "dark" and "light" themes, with the two volumes Black and White compiling songs of either nature, respectively.
The discography of Japanese musician Yuna Ito consists of three studio albums, one compilation album and nineteen singles. Her debut album, Heart, was released in 2007 after six singles, including one of the two theme songs for the film Nana, "Endless Story" (2005), which also featured Ito in her acting debut, as well as "Precious" (2006), the theme song of the film Limit of Love: Umizaru. Both of these songs were very commercially successful, becoming certified Million by the RIAJ.
"U" is a song by South Korean pop group Super Junior, and is the group's follow-up release to their debut album Twins. The single topped CD sales charts during the first several weeks after its release on June 7, 2006. "U" peaked at #1 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts and sold 91,416 copies by 2008. The song won a total of five music recognitions, being Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009. Promotional performances for the title song, "U", did not complete until September 2006. The last general performance for the song was in August 2007 in Tokyo, Japan.
60s 70s 80s is a triple A-side single, Namie Amuro's 33rd solo single under the Avex Trax label. It was released in CD and CD&DVD formats on March 12, 2008, 11 months since her previous single "Funky Town", and nearly nine months after her successful album Play. This single continues her successful comeback, as it had her highest first week sales since 2000's "Never End" even at a time when CD single sales are dramatically decreasing. It became her first #1 since 1998's "I Have Never Seen", and her highest selling single since "Never End".
Nana (ナナ) is a 2005 Japanese drama film directed by Kentarō Ōtani. Based on the manga of the same name by Ai Yazawa, the film stars Mika Nakashima as Nana Osaki and Aoi Miyazaki as Nana "Hachi" Komatsu. The film was released on September 3, 2005.
Ayumi Hamasaki A 50 Singles: Live Selection is 27th live DVD by Ayumi Hamasaki, released on April 20, 2011. It is the compilation of her 50 best live performances selected from each of her singles, from her 1st single, Poker Face, to her 50th single, L. It was released on the same day with Ayumi Hamasaki Rock 'n' Roll Circus Tour Final: 7 Days Special. It was originally scheduled to be released at March 30, but was pushed back till April 20 due to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. It charted strongly at #2 while Ayumi Hamasaki Rock 'n' Roll Circus Tour Final: 7 Days Special charted at #1, making her the first artist to hold #1 and #2 positions on the Oricon DVD Weekly Chart. The sales of this 2 DVD make her the female artist with the highest DVD sales of 2,313,000 units sold, behind Arashi. As her song, Kanariya, had not been performed live before, it was replaced as a video clip.
